* Key Repositories?

[kevinmerrison]

Adrian, thanks for sharing how you capture certificates, it makes sense to me. I think maybe my One-name Study (ONS) is influencing how I'm using the source and repositories PBs, in particular for photos, newspapers and bmd certificates. When I started the family history I did the typical work back and ordered certificates as far as I could go, as you and others have mentioned, no real need for me to record repository as I either had the few originals or they were from GRO Southport. Also why both keying in anything for the England Census as the answer is commonly known as TNA. But when the research turned into a ONS things changed, in that I was fortunate to make contact with several other interested parties, who also had certificates etc for their branches and we 'shared' these. I now have sources/copies of documents from over 100 people, hence I slipped into using source and repository to better record where the documents were. I still knew that the original source of a Southport certificate was GRO, but I felt I need to record that John Brown had the certificates/documents. I also found it helpful to find out which certificates the 'sharer' had inherited (the classic envelope or shoe box of certificates, paper clips and photos) and which they had sent off for. All were helpful to my ONS, but those inherited had more 'value' in terms of being more likely to be in the 'sharers' family group.
I've also started to use repository in anger to help me build research lists for the various parishes. So if I'm going to the Borthwick, county record office/arhive or just looking up a parish register on the internet, by capturing when I can the District Registrar or Parish Register (I then go on the hunt for the Parish Register location often using Family Search Wiki and increasingly being able to find online), giving me a nice look up list.
It's a two way traffic, so when approached about a branch in the ONS I like to be able to quickly guide the fellow researcher to the source, often published on a website.
So initially I didn't use repository at all, then I was using repository to record where the document was (I was using AS by then so each cert attracted it's own source with an ability to link the repository), then sharing info on the source/repository with other researchers and most recently for parish registers (1538-1847) I've drifted into using source and repository PBs for where I have considered the record should be and where I have found them.

[AdrianBruce]

Interesting - yes, I can see how doing an ONS where you are pooling certificates etc, could very well push you towards a different use of Repository than I would think of. It could give you a quicker path to stuff, whereas I have limited numbers of stuff that I've received from someone else, and annotating the Publication entry suffices for me.

There is seldom one answer to any question of how to enter data and different people will justifiably use FH in different ways.